The International Banquet is Only Six Days Away!

I told you in previous messages that my church is holding an international banquet on Saturday, May 2, 2009, to raise money for the missionaries we support. Yesterday my pastor told me that the purpose is also to celebrate the diversity in our little congregation. He’s got a point; about twenty years ago I remember somebody saying that churches are the most racially segregated institutions in America. We’ve come a long way since then. The church I attended for twenty-five years in Florida was definitely diverse. Blacks, Asians, Indians and Jews were all represented, along with the W.A.S.P.s you’d expect, and we had just enough Hispanics attending to provide Spanish-language translations for them during the services. For the Friday night services, two or three black men would wear yarmulkes, and nobody else thought it was odd. Mind you, these were authentic Jewish yarmulkes, not the red-gold-and-green ones I occasionally see on Rastafarians. The church I attend now is nearly as diverse, minus the yarmulkes.

By contrast, when I first arrived in Kentucky, I visited Andover Baptist Church, because it was the closest Baptist church in the neighborhood. The young pastor of that place considered his congregation diverse because they came from towns all over central Kentucky! Well, I took a look, and I only saw one black family; the rest were non-Hispanic whites. Considering where I had just come from, I’m glad I didn’t laugh at that point.

Anyway, I scanned one of the flyers we’re passing out. If you think you’ll be in the neighborhood on that day, download the PDF and drop in to see us!